Valentine's Day today, so we just spent the whole day in bed, just kidding we had to check out of our hotel/sauna today. We did try to extend our stay for a further night, which has never been a problem before in any other hotel that we've stayed at, but I was told by the surly person behind the front desk that they were full tonight. I didn't think anything more of it until we checked their availability at the computer in the local Tourist Centre later and found that they had vacancies. Maybe for once our accents just didn't fit in or something, however Bakersfield has more six Motel 6's, so we easily found another one to stay at.

Yesterday we had located a brilliant sandwich shop, a place where I wanted to try everything on the menu and also where I didn't feel like I needed an extra stomach by the time I finished the meal. So we stocked up on a few picnic goodies and headed twenty minutes out of Bakersfield to a state park for a picnic.

Maybe we've got a bit spoilt by all the National Parks that we've seen so far, because the park was a little bit average looking to me. Still it was nice enough, we sat on the edge of the lake, ate and sun bathed on the grass as the smog slowly burnt off.

As the sunshine began to fade, we decided we should make some effort to find the hotel that we had booked. At one point we seemed to have about four Motel 6 directories in the car, but the minute that we needed one of them for directions, they had all vanished. Still my sense of direction must be getting better, because we found the place with only one brief detour.

Lynne was delighted to find out that for the next couple of days they are showing the Westminster Dog Show on television (this is basically the American equivalent of Crufts). So for the next couple of nights we have to argue about what dogs we might buy in the future, Lynne likes small, cute and slobbery (for her choice of dogs not men) and I like tall, butch and keeping their saliva to themselves (again my choice in dogs).

I can't say that I'm sad that Valentine's Day is over, because we'll be able to go five minutes without having Valentine's Day adverts on the television. It's much more commercialised over here, no buying flowers, chocolates, a bottle of Asti Spumanti from the garage on your way to work on 14th February. If you believe the adverts, people expect some seriously expensive gifts to be purchased, in particular jewelry. It's lucky that I'm not American, so I don't have to indulge Lynne with anything but my wonderful personality, that's the gift that keeps on giving all year!